36 research outputs found
When Too Much Is Not Enough: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder as a Pathology of Stopping, Rather than Starting
Background: In obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), individuals feel compelled to repeatedly perform security-related behaviors, even though these behaviours seem excessive and unwarranted to them. The present research investigated two alternative ways of explaining such behavior: (1) a dysfunction of activationāa starting problemāin which the level of excitation in response to stimuli suggesting potential danger is abnormally strong; versus (2) a dysfunction of terminationā a stopping problemāin which the satiety-like process for shutting down security-related thoughts and actions is abnormally weak. Method: In two experiments, 70 patients with OCD (57 with washing compulsions, 13 with checking compulsions) and 72 controls were exposed to contamination cuesāimmersing a hand in wet diapers āand later allowed to wash their hands, first limited to 30 s and then for as long as desired. The intensity of activation of security motivation was measured objectively by change in respiratory sinus arrythmia. Subjective ratings (e.g., contamination) and behavioral measures (e.g., duration of hand washing) were also collected. Results: Compared to controls, OCD patients with washing compulsions did not differ significantly in their levels of initial activation to the threat of contamination; however, they were significantly less able to reduce this activation by engaging in the corrective behavior of hand-washing. Further, the deactivating effect of hand-washing in OCD patients with checkin
Response of symptom dimensions in obsessive-compulsive disorder to treatment with citalopram or placebo
Autism and ADHD Symptoms in Patients with OCD: Are They Associated with Specific OC Symptom Dimensions or OC Symptom Severity?
In obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the relationship between autism spectrum disorders (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptom, and obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptom dimensions and severity has scarcely been studied. Therefore, 109 adult outpatients with primary OCD were compared to 87 healthy controls on OC, ADHD and ASD symptoms. OCD patients showed increased ADHD and autism symptom frequencies, OCDĀ +Ā ADHD patients reporting more autism symptoms (particularly attention switching and social skills problems) than OCDĀ āĀ ADHD patients. Attention switching problems were most significant predictors of OC symptom dimensions (except hoarding) and of symptom severity. Hoarding was not associated with elevated autism scale scores, but with inattention. In conclusion, attention switching problems may reflect both symptom overlap and a common etiological factor underlying ASD, ADHD and OCD
An empirical investigation of incompleteness in a large clinical sample of obsessive compulsive disorder
A Multimethod Analysis of Incompleteness and Visual āNot Just Rightā Experiences in Body Dysmorphic Disorder
Relationship of season, thermal loading and red-sore disease with various haematological parameters in Micropterus salmoides
The Mediating Effect of Acceptance on the Relationship between Emotional Clarity and Social Interaction Anxiety in College Students
Quality of Life After Violent Crime: The Impact of Acute Stress Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Other Consequences
Further development of YBOCS dimensions in the OCD collaborative genetics study: symptoms vs. categories
Despite progress in identifying homogeneous subphenotypes of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) through factor analysis of the Yale Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale Symptom Checklist (YBOCS-SC), prior solutions have been limited by a reliance on presupposed symptom categories rather than discrete symptoms. Furthermore, there have been few attempts to evaluate the familiality of OCD symptom dimensions. The purpose of this study was to extend prior work by this collaborative group in category-based dimensions by conducting the first-ever exploratory dichotomous factor analysis using individual OCD symptoms, comparing these results to a refined category-level solution, and testing the familiality of derived factors. Participants were 485 adults in the six-site OCD Collaborative Genetics Study, diagnosed with lifetime OCD using semi-structured interviews. YBOCS-SC data were factor analyzed at both the individual item and symptom category levels. Factor score intraclass correlations were calculated using a subsample of 145 independent affected sib pairs. The item- and category-level factor analyses yielded nearly identical 5-factor solutions. While significant sib-sib associations were found for four of the five factors, Hoarding and Taboo Thoughts were the most robustly familial (r ICC>or=0.2). This report presents considerable converging evidence for a five-factor structural model of OCD symptoms, including separate factor analyses employing individual symptoms and symptom categories, as well as sibling concordance. The results support investigation of this multidimensional model in OCD genetic linkage studies